Today I made amazing spaghetti sauce, following my dad’s recipe! I started with chopping a lot of veggies…
And then put it all in the giant pot in the oven for 4 hours…
As it cooked it smelled so delicious in the house all day, it was killing me!!! In the end I had enough to fill 7 jars.
Another top 4, this time of my fave pics of 2008. They may not be my best, and there’s tons more I love, but here a few that stand out for me!
#4: Sailor on American ship in Quebec City…
#3: Team Xtreme South Africa figuring out the way at the Coast Raid…
#2: Happy walking in front of my sunset pic…
#1: Whale at sunset with Greenly Island in the background…
My life in 2008… What are the 4 top events?
#4: The community organizer goes on maternity leave, I take her job and stay longer in Blanc-Sablon than originally planned… I was supposed to go back to Montreal in June 2008!
#3: I got to really enjoy my region… From going inside on snowmobile to going whale watching, and capturing the beauty of it all on photographs. Blanc-Sablon is an amazing place!
#2: I went on two holidays out of the country, one to Cuba in February and one to Spain/London in September.
#1: I got Happy back forever!
These international events took place in 2008 and I think they were of importance… In chronological order:
February 17 – “Kosovo formally declares independence from Serbia…” Finally some positive for this country ravaged by years of war…
February 19 – “Fidel Castro announces his resignation as President of Cuba, effective on February 24.” I was in Cuba on holiday when this was announced. I was surprised there wasn’t that much buzz on the streets, not that I could see/hear anyways!
July 2 – “Íngrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages are rescued from FARC…” It was great to see she finally got rescued!
14 July – “The [ICC] Prosecutor accused Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, and requested that the Court issue an arrest warrant for him.” Now if only the Court would grand the warrant, they could get their hands on him, bring him to Den Haag, try him and find him guilty!
(Quotes from Wikipedia)
My first top 4… Best CDs of 2008!
4. The Raconteurs – Consolers of the Lonely
I liked this 2nd CD of theirs for the energy it has. My fave song is hard to pick, but I particularly like the last one, love the story of “Carolina Drama“!
3. The Kills – Midnight Boom
A CD I liked listening to, especially at work. It’s not too heavy, and it’s got good beats! My fave song would be the first, “U.R.A. Fever“.
2. Bloc Party – Intimacy
Some nut heavy/rapid songs, some cute ones, some just plain amazing! My fave song is “Halo“, a REAL Bloc Party song!
1. Sigur Ros – Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
Amazing work once again by Sigur Ros, this CD at first I was a bit surprised by… Especially the opening song extra cheery “Gobbledigook”! But after a couple of listens, I fell in love with all of the tracks… The CD starts happy, and as the songs go by the music evokes a whole bunch of emotions, sadness, joy, hope, anger, etc! VERY tough to choose a fave track, love them ALL equally, but I’ll go with “Festival“. It’s the CDs longest track. I love how it builds up! And that it’s in Vonlenska, Sigur Ros’ own language!
The 2 next destinations on my list are Peru (for the Inca Trail) and Iceland (because of Sigur Ros). In the past couple of days I’ve started seriously looking at Iceland… When/where/how/cost/etc. I think it’s my final choice for my next trip, maybe in May. Yay!
I’m running out of milk. I wanted to buy some at the grocery store, but they were completely out of ALL fresh milk, from that tasteless stuff 1% to the greasy stuff 3.25% to the one I buy 2%. NO MILK! They had some long lasting milk, like Grand Pré, but I keep that as a last resort!
The boat usually comes in with food on Fridays. We knew it was delayed, supposedly coming in yesterday, Monday. And today, Tuesday, still no sign of it. Apparently it will get here tonight.
So hopefully tomorrow I can buy fresh milk before the store closes for New Years at 16h!!
I enjoyed it.
On Christmas Eve my family came here. We ate from my nice snack table and opened our gifts. My bro was happy and surprised by the gift I got him (a digital camera), mom loved her frame (and hung it at her house right away) and mom’s boyfriend loved his gift too (Canadiens 8 DVD box set).
Last night mom hosted a Christmas supper at her house. I brought Happy along. She behaved well, except when M. would start playing with her getting her overexcited. The food was good, and people seemed to enjoy the evening. And best of all, the snowstorm never really came, so I didn’t have trouble coming back home after!
-Get up,
-Take Happy out,
-Feed her,
-Eat my own brekky,
-Get dressed,
-Wait for colleague to come get the 2 gifts I wrapped for her,
-Put Happy in the car,
-Go out to the post office (no mail),
-Go put gas in the car,
-Drive to Middle Bay and back (25 minutes to go, 25 minutes to come back going average 100km/h),
-Go to mom’s,
-Go to J.&M.’s to see their tree,
-Chase after Happy who escaped and didn’t want to come back,
-Go to the supermarket,
-Go get delicious partridge soup at R.&J.’s house,
-Go home,
-Eat,
-Clean the house,
-Do laundry,
-Cook.
One of my fave lunches, partridge soup with a nice warm bread bun…
That’s where I’m at. I did most of my cooking for tonight, as I am hosting the réveillon for my family where we’ll open our gifts. On the menu, all “stuffed” things: stuffed bread baguette (veggies or salmon), stuffed bell peppers (red and green, for Christmas) and stuffed mini vol-au-vent pastries (with whipped cream and fresh fruit on top).
Now I guess a bit of relaxation in front of the tele is in order. As I’m getting a bit of a headache… Grrr!
I found an old Polaroid pic a couple of weeks ago when mom moved to her new house.
My dad had a Polaroid camera at work years ago. Sometimes he brought it home and let me use it. That’s how I snapped this pic of my bro. He’s Santa. I made that Santa using the side of a box, painting the scenery/bonhomme and gluing little snowflakes I’d made with my snowflake shaped punch. Bro’s about 8 on there, so I guess I was like 11 years old.
So I guess I’ve always been pretty crafty!
This morning when the TV went on to wake me up at 6h50, I looked outside, it was still dark but I could see the storm hadn’t started yet. So I did my usual morning stuff: take Happy out, feed her, eat myself, dress up, turn the car on to warm up, get final stuff ready and go!
I was at work by 8h. I was cleaning a common storage area we share. It was a huuuuge mess and no one ever got around cleaning it. So I thought I’d give that to my colleagues as a “xmas gift”! There’s no window there so I couldn’t see outside. At 11h a colleague came to tell me the storm had started. I looked out, and indeed, snowing with bad visibility! So I headed home…!
Driving back was alright. The roads were still ok, not many snow banks had accumulated yet. But visibility was really bad! I couldn’t see at all by moments. So I just drove slowly home.
This arvo I did crafts, played outside with Happy a bit (on the side of the house which is sheltered from the 100km/h winds), watched tele, baked, etc.
I modified the xmas gift I got at our xmas party… It was a plain/generic/vertical message board:
Now it’s horizontal/bright/full of personality/one of a kind:
I used fabric to cover the image, securing it in place with gluestick and pushing the edges under the wood. I painted the frame a nice turquoise that matches the fabric. And voilà! Really quick and easy!
I’d like it if the storm already started, before 8h30, so I could stay home and be lazy. Because this weekend went by really quickly! I did lots… From getting my tree to ice skating to doing some photography to walks with Happy. Didn’t watch much tele at all!
Today is another Flickr DILO (day in the life of…) event! I’ll put my pics here throughout the day, and in the end choose my fave to send in!
#1: My favourite ornament, it’s one I made in kindergarten with felt and sparkles.
#2: Giant ice pebbles on the beach.
#3: Frozen algae.
#4: Frozen cap on the rock.
#5: Frozen rocks.
]
This morning I got a nice surprise… I got a call from Jo. asking if I could take her 4 year old granddaughter for a little while to do a craft project together. I said, of course! Earlier I’d already baked salt dough ornaments for my tree, so I thought we’d paint them together! She was so cute, and followed my directions very well. She brought 4 back home, wrapped up nicely, for her mom/dad/grandma/grandpa and I kept the rest, 6 of them (3 stars, 3 gingerbread and 3 trees). It was neat!
Then in the afternoon I went with J. to cut my tree! We drove a bit further away where there’s a bit of “forest.” We found a nice fir tree for me and a smaller one for J. It was fun, walking around in the snow, through the trees/woodies/bushes and finding my tree! Back home I made the tree fuller, as here trees grow strangely… I drilled a few holes in the trunk and stuck branches in. And then I enjoyed putting it up listening to Christmas music! And nice that there’s already some gifts under it!
Well, in the end, all is good at work, for now anyhow!
And to celebrate, I decided to take the day off!
So today, after cleaning my house, I went shopping for stuff (Happy’s food, cord for outside, Christmas gift, etc), got a visit from a very good friend who’s back for the Holidays, watched some tele, made my bed with my new duvet cover, and prepared a leash hook.
I saw many cute leash hooks on Etsy, for example this one or this one, but for those prices, I thought I could make my own! I bought a square piece of moulding. I painted it red around the detailing, placed letters to write Happy, painted black paws and attached a hook. I like the finished product a lot! And finally I will stop always looking for that leash!
